Comment by nadezhda18 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nadezhda18 | Hacker News Reader

I do agree with the conclusion of the article to some point. I think it (mindfulness as the result of the meditation) must really depend on each person and each character.

Anecdotally, in my case, mindfulness as a result of meditation and similar mind-calming practices (like jogging, stretching) helped me to advance my career from a dev to a team lead and eventually helped me to get a courage to pursue my dreams of being an entrepreneur.

I can conclude that in my case, it did not decrease my motivation but helped me to:

1. overcome my anxiety and become a better employee

2. see what I truly want and get rid of the mental stuff the others (meaning the corporation) imposed on me (following the said corporation's goals)

And fwiw, Mindfulness meditation exacerbated my anhedonic depression to the point where I was no longer able to take care of myself.

Before the well-meaning but condescending comments arrive: no, I was not 'doing it wrong. If my experience threatens anyone's romantic view of meditation, kindly keep it to yourself.

I did not know this could happen... thanks for sharing your experience

Studies have found that getting issues like what you experienced as a result of mindfulness meditation is extremely low – so, you cannot blame it on meditation. Also, I have been to many retreats and I am yet to see someone who had a negative episode during a retreat.

'Studies?'

Post them, or it will be safe to assume you are lying in reaction to the threat to your ego.

Here are three articles:

(1). Wong, S. Y., et al. (2018). The Safety of Mindfulness-Based Interventions: a Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials. Mindfulness, 1-14.

(2). Creswell J.D. (2017). Mindfulness Interventions. Annual Review of Psychology. 68: 491–516.

(3). Shonin, et al. (2014). "Are there risks associated with using mindfulness in the treatment of psychopathology?". Clinical Practice. 11 (4): 389–92.

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